


The Day I Shot Down My Lover

by disownedbytime



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Tragedy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25353637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disownedbytime/pseuds/disownedbytime
Summary: ‘In a world where I lost my lover, what color will the flowers bloom?’‘Everything began the day they met. Their meeting was a promise of loss.’Based on the same song by Sound Horizon.
Relationships: Rook Hunt/Vil Schoenheit
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	The Day I Shot Down My Lover

**Author's Note:**

> Excuse my (bad) use of French. Alternate universe with beasts and no magic.

“In a world where I lost [him]... what color will the flowers bloom?”

Bow and arrow in hand, tears overflowing. He could only stare at the bloody figure that lied in front of him.

The night sky is supposed to be bright, right?, but this world is void of color, and how could it be any other way? It lost its meaning, it lost its colors.

“Ah, how did it turn out like this?”

* * *

He’d been stalking it for four days, two days in the forest and two in the plains. They were getting closer to the nearby village so there wasn’t much time left to act. It seemed it was still a ‘youngling,’ probably hadn’t been in this world more than a week. It looked confused and clumsy, but that didn’t change the fact that it was a beast, and he had to shot it down.

He liked the adults more, the ones that had been roaming for longer. How beautiful those were. They were more difficult to track down, yet it was a more exciting experience. They also put on a fight more often, a fight that was easily won by him anyway. But he liked the thrill of danger. He was a hunter after all.

The younglings were okay too, not as beautiful as the adults, but by stalking them he had come to learn a lot about them, how they hunted, where they rest, their socializing –or better said, lack of–, their habits and behavior. And it was thanks to that that he managed to become one of the best beast hunters in the area.

He could’ve killed this youngling on the first day, it was all alone in the forest, even seemed scared to go hunt. But he felt there was something especial about it, his hunter soul could tell, so he decided to follow it. The second day he found what that ‘special something’ was. The beast had a companion, another youngling that looked as old as it. It was the first time he saw anything like this, normally beasts were reclusive, only interacting with other beasts for territory fights or group attacks; so needless to say, he was ecstatic to find more about this odd relationship. The two younglings stayed together for a while, roaming the forest, howling, just passing their time, until one gradually became more erratic. It usually took two to three weeks for a youngling to become an adult. This youngling was too young to move to that stage, but its behavior was clearly the transformation into adulthood, so he thought it was an outlier. Probably it was going to be in this erratic phase for longer than usual, but in the end it’d become an adult. The erratic one left during the second night, leaving the original youngling alone. He decided to keep track of this one; it was still a youngling so he could still learn more about their behavior. And he could deal with the erratic beast in a few of days, when he had completed his evolution.

The youngling showed no signs of becoming an adult, yet it could still become a problem if it were to attack the village. Lamenting the fact that he couldn’t learn more about it, he approached the beast from behind.

It took one silver arrow for the beast to fall down. An adult at this point would come charging at him, but younglings usually didn’t put on a fight –unless you were mad enough to get closer to it, like Rook sometimes did– he fired three more arrows, two to kill it completely and one more to be sure it was dead. After waiting a couple of minutes making sure the beast wouldn’t move, he walked up to it and retrieved the used, bloody arrows.

“Ah quel dommage!” He shrugged. “Not only his death wasn’t beautiful, but in the end I didn’t find anything important.” With his back to the bushes, were he had been hiding just moments ago, he looked at the road that lead to the village. “I should go visit it before I find that other beast.”

Suddenly he heard a commotion behind him, giving him mere seconds to react. What he saw then was probably the most scary yet beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Who knows from where, but an adult beast came charging at full speed towards him. How come he didn’t see it before? There’s no correct answer to that, no matter how many times he asked himself the same question. But the best and worst was what happened next. The beast was too close to him, one false move and it was the end, yet his demise didn’t come. Instead, the most beautiful person he had ever lied his eyes upon jumped in front of him; he could’ve sworn it was an angel that stood in between the beast and him. But angels don’t bleed or scream in agony, so soon he realized he wasn’t an angel, but a mere human that had just sacrificed himself for him. Ah, beauté–

No, he had to shot down this beast before it was too late.

Not wasting any more time he fired his arrow, barely missing the non angel human, piercing the beast right in the heart. Before the beast had time to react, he fired four more arrows, three more to the heart and one to its head. Ten seconds passed before he moved again. He walked towards the beast, inspecting it slowly. The fact that he didn’t feel or hear it coming towards him intrigued him. It didn’t took him long to realize that this beast was the same erratic beast he had seen two days before, now a full adult. _It doesn’t make sense, it should still be a youngling, how come the transformation was so fast? Ah, I should’ve followed this one instead! It really was an outlier. But, wait, this means this was an ambush? The youngling served as bait so the adult could catch me. But, beasts don’t have minds of their own, they act on instinct, so to plan something like this is impossible. Or maybe the beast realized I shot its companion so it came to get revenge... ah that’s impossible too, how can such a beast have feelings?_

He heard a groan behind him and suddenly remembered the injured man.

“Monsieur, are you okay?” He asked, walking towards him.

The injured man sat up, holding onto his right arm to stop the bleeding. Both his arms and torso were scratched badly and were bleeding, however his lower half seemed to be unharmed.

“That was such a brave, yet stupid act. Allez, my tent is near, I’ll treat your wounds.” The hunter said with a stern voice.

“No. Just, just shot me down already.” The injured man muttered. His face showed he was in pain, both outside and inside.

The hunter smiled. “So you know about it. About what’s going to happen to you.” He spoke with a soft voice.

“The curse of the beast. Once someone gets wounded by the beast, they’ll transform into one of them.” The injured man said firmly but with his eyes looking at the ground. “So, just shot me down before that happens. It’ll be worse if you don’t.”

“Je suis desolé, but I can’t do that.” Without wiping the smile of his face, he tried to make the other man stand up. “Come on.”

“What? Why can’t you? You’re a hunter, aren’t you?” The man finally looked at him.

“Even if you’re going to turn into a beast, I can’t shot you down now. You’re still human. That goes against my principles as a hunter.”

“So, I can’t do anything but wait?” He sighed heavily. “In that case, I’ll rather bleed to death here.”

“Non!” The hunter grabbed the man by his arms and made him stood up, making him scream in pain in the process. “That’s such a non beautiful thing to do, suicide is not beautiful, it undermines the meaning of your life. Your sacrifice was stupid but noble, and I can’t let you die here.”

The injured man fell silent. He had lost a lot of blood by now, so being gentler this time, the hunter dragged him towards the forest where his tent was set up.   
  


* * *

“Can I ask, why did you do it?” The hunter asked the other man as he handed him a water bottle. “You don’t even know me, and yet knowing what was going to happen to you, you threw your life away for me.”

The man took the bottle, flinching when he raised his arm. His arms and torso were covered in bandages now.

“You’re a hunter, it wouldn’t be good if you were to die.” He took a sip of water and after some moments he continued talking. “My village was attacked by those beasts recently, it was only one at first but I believe there were more nearby, so they came too. We were so unprepared, only a few of us survived. I lost some important people that day.”

“Ah so you’re suicidal. Survivors guilt, is it? Like I said, sacrifice is noble and beautiful but suicide is not a good thing–” The hunter spoke but was cut short by the other man.

“What? No, I’m not. If that were the case I would have stayed that day at my village to die with everybody.” The man glared at the hunter. “You’re a hunter, you are meant to hunt these things, if you die then we’ll never get rid of all these beasts.” He took a deep breath. “We used to have many hunters in my village, most people started training since they were young; but that was not enough, by the day of the attack half of them were dead already, others got scared and left before, and a few left to fight in other areas. When the beasts came that day we only had one hunter left and one in training, they couldn’t do anything. We can’t afford to lose more of you.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, that’s such a beautiful thing to do for a stranger, but it was reckless. Your body is not strong or big enough to stop an adult beast, if I had taken two more seconds to react you would’ve died and then I would’ve died too. If you had done the same for any other person then we’d have two deaths instead of one injury.” The hunter explained.

“Look, I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? I just saw you kill that other beast and then saw the other one jump from the bushes to attack you, and I felt like I had to do something, it was as if my body moved on it’s own.” The man looked down as he spoke.

“Ah so that’s how it was.” The hunter hummed. “Well, in any case it was my fault too, I too was reckless by not noticing the adult. I apologize, and I should thank you too, reckless or not, you saved my life. Merci, monsieur.”

The man nodded. “Vil. Vil Schoenheit.” He looked up to see the hunter.

“Ah, what a beautiful name for such a beautiful person. Such perfection, and–” The hunter’s eyes gleamed. “Ah, my bad. My name is Rook Hunt. Enchanté.”

Vil nodded again and then fell silent, lost in thought. His pain seemed to have subdued a little.

“Rook, how long do I have left?” He asked after some minutes.

“Ah, well, the transformation is gradual and it depends on the individual. The first signs may present in a week, but can take up to three weeks to show. From there it’ll take some time to fully become a youngling, the fastest I’ve noticed was one month and the slowest, four months, but that was only one case. I’d say in average it’s two months since the attack. Then, a youngling takes two to three weeks to fully become an adult, it’s faster the more they kill and eat. Though I got to say the beast from earlier surprised me, if I’m correct he was no older than a week when he went from a youngling into an adult, so I guess in the end nothing is set on stone.” Rook finished his explanation and sighed.

“How will I know when I’ll become a youngling?” Vil inquired again.

“You’ll lose your mind. Your consciousness will gradually disappear, by the time you no longer have rational thoughts you’ll be a youngling. And, your body will be that of a beast too, sharp fangs and claws, fur on your body, none of the human body left.” He continued his explanation.

“And how do you differentiate between a youngling and an adult?”

“It’s tricky for a lot of normal people to notice, but if you pay attention you’ll realize. Younglings are scared, they don’t normally approach people and usually only hunt animals. They no longer possess the mind of a human, but they surely don’t have the mind of an adult, it’s like a bridge between. As soon as they become adults their only goal is killing and hunting, the confusion gone from their mind. Almost all the sightings from beasts are from adults, so a lot of people don’t even know about younglings.”

“You’ve done your research, it seems.” Vil sarcastically said.

“Bien sûr, I need to understand these beasts, they’re so fascinating. What’s going in their minds before they lose themselves? When did they first appear and where? Who cursed them to such a fate and why? Ah, I still have so many questions.” Rook showed a pained expression at his own ignorance.

Vil spoke looking directly at him. “You’re strange, most hunters only care about hunting, not about understanding them, and I’m sure nobody finds them fascinating.” He sighed. “So I have around two months before I become a full beast.”

Rook nodded, “Though your wounds aren’t severe and you look healthy, so I believe it can be longer. I’d say you have three months.”

Vil sighed again. “I guess I can’t go back. The other survivors and I left what was left of our home and came to the neighbor village seeking asylum, but I can’t put them in danger, and I definitely don’t want them seeing what I will become.”

“So, what are you gonna do?” Rook inquired.

“I– I’m not sure.” He stammered. “I never planned on becoming a beast, I don’t have a plan. I can probably go back to my village, it should be empty, but–”

“Stay with me.” Rook said with a smile on his face.

“With you? Here?” Vil said looking around his tiny campsite.

“Non, my house is deeper in the forest, I live there alone. It’s far away from any village, so you shouldn’t be worried about anybody seeing you. Besides, I understand the phases you’ll go through so I can help you with them.” Rook placed his hand on his cheek, admiring the man who was in front of him. “Plus I wouldn’t mind having to look at you every day.”

Vil rolled his eyes. “You want to study me?”

“Oui, that too.” He said with the same sincere smile from before.

“You really are strange.” Vil said. He thought for a few seconds, but he knew what he had to do. “Alright, I’ll go with you, I have nothing to lose anymore.”   
  


“Très bien.”

* * *

“You make it look too easy.” Vil said coming out from the tree where he was hiding. Ten days had passed since the attack and since he’d been living together with Rook. He still showed no signs of beginning his transformation but he knew it was going to happen soon.

“Ah, it may seem so but it took me some time to be this good.” He picked up his silver arrows from the fallen beast in front of them. Lately Vil had been accompanying him in his hunts, he wanted to know more about what he was going to become, but also he got bored in the small cabin.

“It’s fast, you don’t let them suffer.” Vil said, looking at the dead beast. It was an adult, he had learnt to differentiate them by now.

Rook smiled at the man, knowing fully well what he was thinking. “Oui, and it’ll be the same with you.”

* * *

Three weeks to the mark, Vil saw his nails get longer and sharper.

“How ugly.” He said, trembling.

Rook took his hands on his own and gave them a chaste kiss. “Non, they’re beautiful.”

* * *

A month, now. Adjusting to having claws as fingers was hard, sometimes he thought he got the hang of it, but other times he broke anything he touched, He held Rook’s shirt on his hands, staring at him through the hole in it.

“I’m sorry, I tried fixing the button but I ended up making it worse.”

“I think it looks better now, my beautiful Vil.”

* * *

A month and a half. Sharp fangs adorned his face now, just like the sharp claws in his hands and feet. He began to see the hair in his body grow slightly thicker.

Rook came from behind him and laced his arms over Vil’s waist.

“I don’t think I could shave it all, right?”

“We could try if you want to, nothing would please me more than seeing your whole body, but I believe it’s going to end just like when we tried trimming your nails.”

“Ah, I thought so.”

* * *

Two months. Vil stared at the two bleeding beasts, one crouching down and the other sprawled on top of it. His own fur had some blood on it from being too close when they were shot down.

“How weird, isn’t it? That a beast tried to protect another beast.”

“Outliers. It’s strange but I’ve seen them lately.”

“Like the one that attacked me, right?”

“Oui. If my theory is correct, those two were together when they were wounded, and it almost seemed like they were close as beasts too, but that seems impossible.”

“Because they don’t have a conscience. Like these two.”

“... Oui.”

“It’s beautiful anyway, don’t you think so? The way they died.”

“You took the words from my mouth.”

“I hope I’ll look beautiful when you strike me down.”

Rook should’ve agreed, after all Vil was still the most beautiful person he’d ever met, but he couldn’t, instead he felt a pang in his heart and he hesitated.

* * *

Two months and a half. They sat on the porch of their cabin.

“Someone I found dear?”

“Yes, I had two friends, they were like my little brothers. I wasn’t always nice to them, I have to admit, but they always supported me.”

“Ah, the ones you said you lost when your village was attacked.”

“Yes, I wasn’t with them when it happened, so I’m not sure what happened to them exactly, but they weren’t among the survivors, and they didn’t let me go look for them.”

“I see.”

“So you had someone like that?”

“Non, only you, mon chéri.” His hand stroke a somewhat hairy cheek.

* * *

Three months. By their initial notion, he should’ve become a full youngling by now. His transformation wasn’t complete yet, but they knew it was a matter of time before their prophesy came true.

He lied on the bed while he was held by Rook’s strong arms, tears flowing from the face that was once human.

“If this is inevitable, I’ll rather have it done by your dear hands.”

Rook’s embrace became stronger and suddenly Vil felt tears on him that weren’t his own.

* * *

Six months. It wasn’t meant to last this long, but it did. How? Who knows. He wasn’t fully a beast yet, or maybe he was? Rook couldn’t tell anymore. Vil now had the appearance of the same beast that attacked him, his human form was a thing of the past. Yet, he was still himself. He still talked, laughed and cried just like he did months ago. He wasn’t like those other beasts that only killed and injured people. He thought. Or wanted to. The truth is lately Vil acted more quiet, more clumsy, more angry, more erratic. Today he attacked some pigs before Rook stopped him. He didn’t want to admit it, but the end had come.

Six months. It took six months to finally happen. Six months since he met [him], and now it was time for it to end.

“Rook, please...” Vil’s voice was soft but desperate. He was covered in pig blood from the attack from before, he looked grotesque, but beautiful in Rook’s eyes.

Rook took a step forward, trying to stop the tears that were forming in his eyes. “I know, I’ll do anything for you, Vil.” He placed his lips on the beast’s bloody ones, a crimson-stained, final kiss.

The hunter broke the kiss apart and walked away with bow and arrows in hand. The night sky was bright and beautiful, full of stars that laughed at their tragedy.

The bow bent and released a flame that froze the night sky. The first silver arrow went straight to Vil’s heart. He wept, but he smiled too.

_‘Au revoir, my dear Vil.’/ ‘Ah, I lived, and I loved too.’_

Rook fired again and again, until Vil took his last breath and he had one arrow left.

With his last arrow and bow in hand, Rook walked towards the figure that lied on the ground.

“Beautiful Vil, tell me, in this world where I lost you, what color will the flowers bloom?” He kneeled down and embraced his former lover, tears dripped over the bloody face.

He turned around to see the world devoid of color. The stars danced, not a trace of their former brightness left.

“Ah, how did it turn like this?” He lamented. “Vil, if we hadn’t met that day, then you wouldn’t have to die.”

_Ah, but if we hadn’t met that day, then..._

Rook took his remaining arrow and placing his bow in position he fired towards the moon.

_If we hadn’t met that day, then I would have lived my life without knowing what it meant to love someone so dearly._

Reminiscing about the past six months, he waited for the impact of the white arrow.

“Ah, how beautiful it all was.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the song I based this on (I used both versions, I prefer the second one but the first one explains the story better.):
> 
> \- https://youtu.be/DWfmmeRCEYg
> 
> \- https://youtu.be/bjocbgoxbz8
> 
> Thank you for reading <3
> 
> Forgot to mention that I referenced other songs too!


End file.
